Over My Dead Body
by Seryan Parks
Summary: It begins with a suicide that looks a lot like a murder. Armin won't stop until the killer is brought to justice, but will he discover a darker secret along the way- a secret that could shake the 104th to its core?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A horrified shriek broke the calm May morning, echoing throughout the Survey Corp outpost. The long scream was punctuated by several smaller ones.

The soldiers of the Survey Corp no longer thought about responding to the scream; by now, it was muscle memory. Within a minute, almost a dozen soldiers had responded, all ready for combat.

But it was not a Titan, not even a horde of Titans, that had ripped a shriek from Hannah's throat.

It was a body.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The body of Kaede Harrison swung from a lower limb of the oak tree on the outskirts of the base. Hannah was curled up in the fetal position under Kaede's feet when Armin and Eren arrived on the scene.

"Oh, God," Armin muttered. "Poor girl."

"Kaede or Hannah?" Eren asked.

"Both," Armin replied. "Kaede and Hannah were so close, especially after Franz died. This has got to be really hard on Hannah."

It was at this time that Erwen Smith showed up, accompanied by Levi and Hanji. "Tch," Levi scoffed. "Another one that couldn't handle the pressure."

"Come here, Arlert," Erwin commanded. "Climb up the tree and get the girl down. She hung herself with her maneuver gear. Don't damage it. The rest of you are dismissed."

"Yes sir," the assembled soldiers replied as they dispersed. Eren cast Armin a mournful glance, sorry that his friend had to perform the unpleasant task of getting Kaede's body down.

Hannah handn't moved. She held her head in her hands and took trembling breaths. She took no notice of Armin using his own manuever gear to reach the limb Kaede's noose hung from. What a mess, Armin thought. Didn't she know how to tie a proper knot? And it's so tight. As Armin began untangling Kaede's gear, he thought about what Capitan Levi had said- that Kaede couldn't handle the pressure. Armin could definitely sympathize. In fact, during the Battle of Trost, he had planned to kill himself rather than be eaten alive by a Titan.

"I don't know why she would do this," Hannah said quietly. "Kaede was happy all the time."

Armin silently agreed. He hadn't been close to Kaede, but the girl struck him as cheerful and good-natured. No matter what Levi said, she didn't seem like the type to kill herself, even if she was scared of being Titan food.

Armin finally untangled the mess of gear. "I'm going to lower her now," he called to Hannah. She nodded weakly. Armin began to lower the cable.

Kaede was heavier than she looked. The cable almost slipped out of his hand and Kaede jerked suddenly because of it. When she stopped swinging, Armin carefull and slowly fed more cable.

Hannah helped lowered Kaede's body as soon as it was low enough for her to reach and laid Kaede on the ground while Armin clambered out of the tree. He bent down and took a good look at the body of Kaede Harrison. Her dull brown hair was wet with dew, as she had apparently spent much of the night swinging at the end of a noose. Her hands and fingers were very slender, with fingernails that were either practically talons or broken off. Kaede was of average attractiveness. She had strong cheekbones and full lips. Her dark blue eyes were still open. It seemed wrong, somehow. Armin reached to close her eyelids-

- and noticed small round bruises on her neck, obscured by the collar of her shirt and jacket.

"I should have gone with her last night," Hannah said quietly.

"What?" Armin questioned sharply- sharper than he had intended. He saw the hurt look on Hannah's face. "Sorry. Gone with her where?"

Tears streamed down Hannah's face, but she seemed not to notice. "Our rooms are- were- next to each other. She went out after eleven last night and said she was meeting someone I offered to come, but she said not to. I should have! I didn't know she was going to- going to..." Hannah trailed off.

_Meeting someone, hmm?_ Armin mused. _How did that meeting go?_

Armin had an idea, but he would need Hannah gone for a little while- he doubted she would like it. "Hannah," Armin began, "We're not strong enough to carry Kaede back to the barracks by ourselves. Could you go find someone else to help? Mikasa Ackerman, or Reiner Braun maybe?"

"Okay." Hannah's voice was a dull monotone. Armin was relieved that she didn't question him, because in reality the two of them could have managed Kaede fairly well, but as Armin knew, Hannah didn't work well under lots of emotional stress. No, Armin needed to check something, and he didn't think Hannah would want to see it.

Once Hannah was safely out of sight, Armin took off Kaede's jacket. She wore a dark green long-sleeved shirt underneath it, so Armin rolled up the sleeves to slightly past the elbows. And there, faint but still visible, were small bruises on the forearms that matched the bruises on the neck. Small, round bruises that were shaped like fingertips.

On a hunch, Armin felt the upper arms. They were slightly muscled- in fact, not much more than himself. She wasn't very strong. Interesting. Armin quickly redressed Kaede and waited for assistance he and Hannah would have been able to carry Kaede, but he certainly couldn't do it without help.

Hannah returned soon after with Reiner in tow. He stopped short at the sight of Kaede's body. "Oh my God," he choked out. "Kaede." He turned to Hannah. "You didn't tell me that she- you said that Armin needed help carrying something, you didn't say that it was Kaede," he moaned.

_How does Reiner know Kaede?_ Armin wondered. _And how much does he know?_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Reiner didn't say anything more. He scooped up Kaede's body, tossed her over his shoulder, delivered her to Hanji, and left.

Hanji rubbed her hands together excitedly. "Ooh, boy. A fresh one." She turned to Armin, who was furiously scribbling his observations in a notebook. "Do you know how hard it is to get a human body around here? All the dead are either Titan food or too badly damaged to be of any use. But _this_-" Hanji gestured at Kaede's body, lying naked on a cold metal table- "is _pristine_!"

"Hanji, I didn't bring her here for you to dissect," Armin told her firmly. "I want help examining Kaede's body because I think she was murdered."

"Murdered?" Hanji didn't sound quite so excited- more like she was curious."Why do you think that?"

Armin pointed out the bruises on Kaede's arms and neck. "They're finger-sized. I think someone was holding her by the forearms before they got their hands around her neck. And if she really committed suicide, then there would be rope burns or marks or something where the 3D gear cables were in contact with her neck. But there's no mark of the cables on her neck, because by the time she was placed in the tree her blood had stopped flowing, so the cables left no marks."

Hanji nodded. "That's a viable hypothesis, Armin." She smiled widely. "I'm impressed that you know so much about human biology."

"I'm not done," Armin continued. "In a suicide by hanging, the blood would flow to her feet, wouldn't it? Gravity and all that." Armin gingerly rolled Kaede's body until she was face down on Hanji's table, suppressing a shudder as he did so. Armin was okay with touching her dead body, but touching a dead, naked body seemed like crossing a line. "But here, her back is dark because that's where the blood went- indicating that she was on her back for a while and then moved. And when I went to close her eyelids, they were stiff. So were her limbs. She would have had to have been dead for at least three hours before she was found."

Hanji had a serious look on her face. "Listen to me, Armin." she said. "I don't want you to talk about your murder hypothesis to anyone. Imagine the uproar it would cause in the corp."

"But if there's a murderer-"

"Armin, listen to me. I believe you, but Erwin and Levi won't. To them, it has to be concrete. They don't have any uses for those of us who make observations." Hanji laughed humorlessly, telling Armin that she knew this all too well from personal experience. "It's better for everyone to believe that this was a suicide."

"What about Hannah?" Armin countered. "You think she wouldn't want justice for her friend?"

"Better for everyone." Hanji said, leaving no room for argument. "If there wasn't the Titan menace, Armin, I would wholeheartedly help you. But everyone has to devote their time to something else. If you want to investigate, go ahead- but please keep it quiet."

"All right," Armin sighed. Hanji draped a sheet over Kaede Harrison as Armin left the lab, closing the heavy wooden doors behind him.

_At least I know where to begin- with the person who saw her last. And I will bet anything that that person is Reiner Braun._

Armin found the tall blonde in the mess hall, slowly eating the Survey Corp's typical lunch of dark, chewy bread; baked potatoes; and radish soup with bits of mystery meat floating in it.

"Hello, Reiner." Armin greeted.

Reiner eyed him warily. "Hi."

"I'd like to ask you some questions, if I could?"

"About Kaede." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes. How did you know each other?"

Reiner shrugged. "I met her during the female Titan thing. And we started talking, and, you know, became friends."

"Good friends?"

"Yes."

"_Just_ friends?" Armin questioned.

Reiner glared a little. He stood abruptly, gathering his dirty dishes. "Yeah, Armin, we were _just_ friends. Excuse me now. I'm gonna train with Bertolt."

Armin watched Reiner's retreating back. _Yeah, he's hiding something- quite a few somethings._ Armin made a record of that in his notebook:

_Reiner claims he met Kaede during the clash with the female Titan. I don't think he has a reason to lie about that, but will investigate anyway. Everything else was obviously a falsehood- clearly considered Kaede more than a friend, probably romantically involved. Love does crazy things to people- could very well motivate Reiner to kill her. Ask Bertolt, Annie if they knew where Reiner was last night- and see if they have (credible) alibis too. __Need more information!_

Armin underlined the last three words. He decided to find some other friends of Kaede and see if they could provide any information.

Armin really didn't want to bother Hannah about this, so he did the next best thing: he asked Sasha, who seemed to know everyone. He gleaned two more names: Jill Ford and Ayla Schwartz.

Jill Ford and Ayla Schwartz were found in the stables, tending to the horses and talking quietly. Ayla was mucking out a stall while Jill groomed the horse- a handsome chestnut colored mare. "Hi," Armin interrupted their conversation.

Ayla wiped her brow and leaned on the shovel, while Jill peered over the mare's hindquarters. "Hi," Ayla responded. "Uhm, Arlert, right?"

"Yes." Armin fidgeted with his notebook and pen. "I hoped I could ask you some questions about Kaede Harrison."

The girls' faces fell. "Yeah, I guess. Why?" Jill asked. She was a short redhead with light blue eyes and glasses.

"I just want to make sense of it." Armin told her. "I only knew Kaede casually, but she seemed to be a cheerful and outgoing person."

"If someone like Kaede killed herself, do the rest of us have hope, really?" Ayla wondered. Although she was up to her knees in horseshit, Ayla was obviously beautiful. She was tall and had short brown hair, although her eyes were sad. "I mean," she continued, "Kaede was a good person. She loved the Survey Corps. If she despaired, then…" Ayla left the thought unfinished.

"I want to know what was on her mind on her last night," Armin began. "Get in her shoes, so to speak. Do you know what she was doing?"

"I saw her last night at supper, and she was her normal self." Ayla replied. "That's the last I saw of her, because then I went to bed early. I knew I'd be in the stables at dawn."

"I saw her at supper, too." Jill sighed. "Afterwards she went to her room and changed her clothes. I wondered why, and she said she was meeting someone. A guy, I guess. She wanted to look good for him."

Armin jotted this down. "Thanks." He then looked Ayla and Jill in the eyes. "I am really sorry for your loss. I know we lose friends all the time, but it never gets easier for me."

"Me neither." Jill responded.

"Thank you again. Good bye," Armin nodded and took his leave.

_Meeting a guy. Looks like I'll have to have another conversation with Reiner._

Hi guys! First author's note, and I just wanted to say thanks for reading. Drop me a review and let me know what you think, what you liked, what you hated, what you had for breakfast, etc.

Thanks for reading :)


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